to of From utility player star BOOGIE-WOOGIE

November 18, 2005|JACK WALTON Tribune Correspondent

"I started gigging when I was about 12," boogie woogie piano player Ricky Nye says. "I played Hammond organ and drums with my father and my uncles, all up through my high school years." As a young musician, Nye played whatever instrument was needed in a variety of groups, with early apprenticeships in rock bands, until he eventually settled on the piano, studying the instrument at the Berklee College of Music in Boston for a stint in 1974. Nye, 49, also enjoyed working with synthesizers early on but has since focused on the boogie-woogie style pioneered by Albert Ammons, Jimmy Yancey and Pete Johnson in the '20s and '30s. In a nutshell, the technique demands rigorous, repeated bass line work from the left hand, while the right hand engages in lyrical, improvised flights of fancy. Tempos are usually lightning fast and conducive to frenetic dancing. Boogie-woogie first blossomed in juke joints and barrelhouses, where it gained its other commonly used name, "barrelhouse piano." "I've gotten pretty organic," Nye says on the phone from his home in Cincinnati. "Since the early '90s, I've really been trying to be a piano player. Before I was playing boogie-woogie, I was doing New Orleans type of stuff, and some rocking blues piano like Jerry Lee (Lewis.)" Even after ditching the synthesizers, Nye's progression backward through the decades was a slow one. When first exposed to the boogie-woogie style, Nye balked. "It sounded really corny to me," he said. "The things I heard just didn't resonate with me. I was listening to blues, jazz and R & B, but then I met some guys who were playing the heck out of some boogie-woogie, and I became fascinated with it. It's not an easy form of music. It has a lot of specific rules and ingredients, and I finally feel comfortable with it now." After learning pieces from listening to recordings of the genre's titans, Nye developed his own compositions in the style as well and is now a leading proponent of boogie- woogie piano, appearing at festivals and being featured in magazines. Seven years ago, Nye debuted his own annual Blues and Boogie Piano Summit, held in Cincinnati, highlighting performances by him, three other piano players and a rhythm section. "We do solo pieces, duets, group stuff, and at the end we have a finale with all four piano players," Nye says. The show has welcomed specialists from France to Arizona. "We're paying tribute to the past, as well as adding our own new touches to it," he said. Nye's current band, the Swingin' Mudbugs, finds him peppering in a few solo numbers, as well as duets with its bassist Nick Lloyd, and working with the full group, rounded out by drummer Brian Aylor. Locally, The Swingin' Mudbugs will appear as a trio at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks and be joined by local stalwarts Tom Moore and Frank Krakowski (from Little Frank & the Premiers) at the Midway Tavern in Mishawaka. Moore will play the harmonica and Krakowski, the guitar. "If (harmonica player) Jumpin' Gene Halton is around, I'm sure he'll be up there, too," Nye says. "It's likely to be a cavalcade of stars."